泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
Imitation precedes creation but the two are not identical
Recently various rumors are abroad about trademark registration of a British video game developer King in the gaming industry. The U.K. giant King.com has "trademarked" the word "Candy" for Candy Crush Saga, the most successful social game. It seems that a wider range of discussion about whether it can obtain trademark registration for the particular word which is widely used. Plus, a recently released mobile game Anipang 2 by SundayToz is pretty hot in the Korean market these days. But adding on to the trademark issue, Candy Crush Saga has naturally become an issue again after the launch of the sequel because its basic structure is very similar to the puzzle video game of King.
I don't want to argue about whether it is plagiarism or not by law. We should respect the court's judgment if King files a suit against SundayToz. I'd like to mention about the company's leading position in the Korean market and its response to criticism about copying the structure. I fully understand management's stance with a lot of pressure on sales record of the first sequel since SundayToz listed on KOSDAQ. And Candy Crush Saga could be an attractive target to copy thanks to its enough game users and proven gameplay etc. Frankly speaking, I merely so upset at responses of the presses saying, "It's not a copyright violation." or "It's not piracy." Plus, I am quite appalled by a SNS post of the CEO of the venture capital firm, one of the two big shareholders, which directly invested in the company. To sum up, it boils down to one thing "There is no 100% creation in the world. One copied and pasted from something that already existed often shows good results. Don't criticize it before you do it." I have cleared level 400 in Candy Crush Saga and level 100 in Anipang 2. And aside from any legal judgments, I think that Anypang 2 plagiarized the one of the highest-grossing and most-played mobile apps. A controversy about differences in terms of detail and structural elements seems to be an excuse to get out of its responsibility for plagiarism. Both games have the exact same characteristics of basic puzzle game, which are elements and obstacles that users have to consider to clear levels. The rest of the small details can be compared only to the same engine-installed vehicles with slightly different exterior and interior designs.
SundayToz is the first gaming company which went public on the domestic stock market since the mobile game services went for full-launch. It is also a symbol that represents domestic mobile game firms. I assume that Anypang 2 will be a big hit and obviously bring in the big bucks as well. But, as one of the biggest mobile game company, it should accept any criticism about the act of plagiarizing. I expect SundayToz to be honest at least if it examined and copied the game of King within the legal limits of copyright laws due to steady sales. There are many cases of piracy produced fine results, however, they accepted blame at the very least.
Before finishing the column, I'd like to quote a line from a story of Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda. "I hate to follow suit. So I struggled to find my own way. Although I spent a long time to catch up competitors, it finally became a technological difference."
※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
(http://www.khgames.co.kr)
Translation by Kim Ki-hui
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